There are provided highly porous amorphous titania and titania/silica materials. There are also provided methods for preparing these materials. There are further provided processes for using these materials, e.g., as catalyst, catalyst supports and sorbents.
Amorphous metal oxides and mixed oxides, such as TiO.sub.2 /SiO.sub.2, are of interest because of their acid catalytic properties and strong interactions with supported metals. Most of the materials of this type, however, suffer from low surface areas which rule out most applications. These types of materials are formed either by deposition of a secondary oxide onto the surface of another oxide or by co-precipitation of two precursors. The former technique presents problems with the degree of homogeneity of the resulting phase. The latter method is a more effective means of preparing these materials, but usually involves high temperature calcinations for the removal of the organic species, thus leading to sintering and loss of surface area.